Tales of Band Camp
by Anni05
Summary: Meet a girl named Sarah, and go along with her as she takes another step in life. College, also find out what its like to be a flute in a big ten college marching band, and the exciting adventures within.
1. First Day

The First Day of Band Camp

Chapter 1.

Sarah Edwards arrived at the campus dorms, this was her first day of marching band spat camp. College marching band none the less. She was so excited, and a little nervous. She watched all the people swarming about, with their huge luggage carts, and their proud parents helping them get situated.

Her parents met her in the commons area with the rest of her luggage. They helped her carry them up to her dorm. Once she was all unpacked, she kissed her parents goodbye. Soon after her parents left, her roommate showed up.

"Hi, I'm Lara Smith." The sweet girl announced, holding out her hand.

Sarah smiled. "Hi, I'm Sarah Edwards. What instrument do you play?"

"I play flute." Lara replied.

"Hey me too!" Sarah said excitedly. "I'm so excited for this to start. I've always wanted to be in this band!"

"Really?" Lara replied. "I come from Colorado, so I've never heard of this band, but I love marching band, and I've heard this was a good band."

Sarah nodded. "It's awesome! I went to their indoor show last year, it was sooo amazing!"

As soon as Sarah finished her sentence another girl walked passed their room. She paused and smiled. "Hi, I'm Beth, a bunch of us are going out to lunch before the meeting. You girls want to come?" She asked.

Lara and Sarah nodded.

"Great, we'll meet at chipotle in a half hour!" Beth said happily.

Sarah and Lara finished getting unpacked. They grabbed their dorm keys and headed to Chipotle. They found Beth sitting at a table with a few people. Beth smiled when she saw them.

"Hey guys! This is Maureen, aka "Mo" She plays Trumpet."

The girl named Mo smiled at them, and shook their hands.

"This is Andy, he plays trumpet too, and that's Jenn, and Lynn. They play flute." Beth finished. "So what instruments do you two play? I didn't catch your names either."

Sarah smiled. "My names Sarah, and I play flute." She shook each of their hands.

Lara went next. "Im Lara, and I play flute too." She said shyly.

"Great to meet you too." The others said. "Lets order food."

They ordered their food, and ate. Sarah wasn't very hungry for the excitement was too much. Though she knew she would regret it later. They talked for a while, about what their majors were, and stuff about the University. Beth was giving them tips about getting around.

Finally, when they were all finished, they headed back to the dorms for a meeting. They met with the band director, and he gave them the layout of the day. They would have marching practice in a half hour, then a music rehearsal. The auditions weren't until the next day.

Sarah trembled when she thought of auditions. –I have to play infront of the director??- She thought nervously. –And my section leader and assistant section leader?- She tried not to think about it much, because the thought made her almost sick.

Once the director was finished, they all grabbed their instruments and headed to marching practice. It was a lot more grueling than Sarah imagined. They spent two hours learning basics. It was all repetition.

During the break, Sarah met all the other flutes. There was Lynn, Lara, Erin, Jenn, Beth, Melissa, John, Mike, Jan, Betsy, Elizabeth, and Rose. A lot of people to learn, but they all seemed really nice… at least at first. Jenn was her assistant section leader, and Melissa was the section leader, Beth was a rank liutenant.

Practice had finally ended, after what seemed like ages. Sarah's legs were screaming with pain. "Maybe I should have worked out more over the summer." She teased with the other flutes.

"Yeah, I'm pretty out of shape myself." Lynn replied laughing.

They all walked back together to the dorms for dinner. Dinner was pretty good, better than Sarah had expected. The dorm food was better than high school, but they still served the same things over again, occasionally. They all sat at a table in the middle of the cafeteria. It was filled with all band people, for the regular students weren't coming to the college for another few days.

Sarah looked around, checking the place out for any cute boys. There were a few… Sarah would just have to work up the courage to ask them out. "Is this the whole band?" She asked curiously.

"No, this is just rookies and leaders." Jenn replied.

"Rookies?" Sarah replied somewhat confused.

"That's what we call first years… you guys." Beth piped in.

"So… there are more!?" Sarah asked amazed. For the band was already a good 120 people at this point.

"Oh yeah, about another 150 more." Jenn said smiling. "The vets don't get here till tomorrow."

"Wow! That's like 300 people!" Lara said, with the same amazement in her eyes.

"Yep, just about." Jenn chuckled.

"I love this band!" John said excitedly. "I went to a home football game last year, it's sooo amazing! I wanna be drum major someday!"

Jenn laughed. "Well John, Im glad you have that much enthusiasum!" She said happily. "And its nice to have a guy in our section for a change! It gets kinda crazy with all girls" She chuckled.

Sarah nodded in agreement. She checked her watch. "Woah, music rehearsal is in a half hour, Im gonna get going." She replied.

"Ok, see you later." Jenn smiled.

Sarah said goodbye to the flutes and headed quickly back to her dorm room. She grabbed her instrument and music, Lara had caught up with her by then, and they both headed to the auditorium. The auditorium was a few blocks from their dorms. They would get really used to walking around campus by the end of the week.

They arrived at the auditorium. It was huge! It had a huge stage, and a wide open seating area with velvet seats and wide isles. It even had a balcony, and a chandelier. Not to mention the outside of the auditorium was amazing. It was a big Pentagon shaped building with the words. "Cyrus Northrup Memorial Auditorium" engraved on the top. It had a clock, on the top with a bell that would chime every 15 minutes. There were huge pillars infront of the massive entrance doors. It was a very Romanesque type building.

As the band arrived, they all sat down on the stage. When they played their first notes, Sarah was in total awe. The notes bounced around the auditorium, and the band sounded enormous. Sarah would never forget the first time they played their school fight song as a band. It was stunning. Sarah was so excited to be apart of this band, and of this college.

The noise died down, and their director began to speak, he was giving directions as to how they should play. Suddenly Sarahs cell phone went off. –Shit- She thought. The whole band started laughing, her director looked in her direction. She quickly shuffled through her bags for her phone, she thought she had turned it off, when in fact she had turned on the speaker button.

"Hello!?" A really loud voice chimed out of the cell phone.

"Hello? Is anyone there?"

Sarah could feel her cheeks burning red, for the phone was so loud that it echoed around the auditorium. The band started cackling. She quickly turned it off and threw it in her backpack and slunk into her seat. She slid down low and put her head in her arms, curled up. –Well… that was great…- She thought.

Finally the band turned their attention back to the director. Sarah finished practice and tried to forget about the embarrassing incident. Once practice was over Sarah headed back to the dorms with Lara. Exhausted from the day, they both just showered and crawled into bed with a thud.

"Wow, a lot has happened today." Lara commented softly.

Sarah nodded slowly. "Yeah, it really has."

"I'm glad I'm in this band." Lara said happily.

"Me too." Sarah said, feeling herself drifting off to sleep. "Me too..."


	2. Rookie Camp Ends

Tales of Band Camp

Chapter 2

Sarah arose early the next morning. It was the second day of Spat camp, and today the vets would be arriving. She looked at the clock and groaned, 6:30am… the earliest she had gotten up all summer. They had to make it to practice by 8am, and she still wanted to shower and eat breakfast.

She grabbed her shower things and headed to the bathroom down the hall. There was a short line. Most people decided to take a shower the night before. She jumped in the shower and let the cool water wake her up. Feeling refreshed, she changed into shorts and a t-shirt, and laced up her tennis shoes and dried her hair. It was pretty hot out today, probably a good 90 degrees, and the sun was out. She put on some sun block and grabbed a quick breakfast, and headed out the door. She met up with the other flutes at the practice field.

"Hey flutes, had a good sleep?" Jenn asked.

They all nodded in response.

"Good, today's gonna be all marching." She told them.

Everyone groaned.

"It's not that bad once you get into it, but it is tough." She sympathized.

Just then the director called on the megaphone "Two Minutes! Block Band! Leaders set positions."

Jenn, Beth and Melissa grabbed their sheets of paper with the positions labeled on them.

"Ok John, you stand here, Sarah, you over here, Betsy, over here." Melissa began placing them. "These will be your block band positions… this is not the parade block however." She finished.

"Ok!" The Drum Major Shouted. "We'll start with 28 jumping jacks!"

The whole band started at the same time, shouting "One!… Two!… Three!" Etc.

"Ok, take a lap around the field!" The drum major shouted.

The whole band groaned, and started jogging.

When they all piled back to their positions, panting and heaving, the drum major called them to attention.

"Wow… I really am out of shape." Sarah said to John, laughing.

"Ba-and! Ah-ten-tion!" The drum major shouted, calling the band to attention.

"One! Two!" The band called instantly, going into attention. Sarah became immediately quiet, focusing her attention straight ahead, and trying not to let the mosquitoes bother her.

They began doing basics for the rest of practice. Learning left faces, right faces, left box drills, and right box drills. Right box drills were rather tough for Sarah, considering you didn't just normally turn right. You had to do a full 270 swing on each turn with your whole body.

Practice finally ended. Sarah was panting as she gathered her stuff up by the flute tree. This band had specific spots designated for each section. There was a trumpet tree, a flute tree, etc. Just one of the many traditions Sarah was about to learn.

They all walked back to the dorms together to go eat lunch. It was still the usual, though Sarah noticed some things were in there that they had used on yesterdays lunch, to her disgust. After eating they headed back to practice, this time to the auditorium for a quick meeting.

"So when do we get to learn the cadences?" John asked bouncing up and down, as they walked along the busy streets.

"What are cadences?" Lara asked.

"Oh, I've heard 'em on the bands CD! They are really cool! They are a bunch of chants and sayings that each section does with the drums while they march." Sarah said excitedly.

John nodded in agreement. "I can't wait to do them!"

Jenn chuckled. "Well… you'll do them soon…" She smiled, eyes shifting a little. "But, Beth, Melissa and I have to hurry up. We'll see you at the meeting."

As Melissa, Beth and Jenn hurried along to the meeting, the first years looked at each other somewhat confused.

"What do you think that was about?" Lynn asked with a puzzled look.

"I don't know, but it sounds a little suspicious." Sarah replied.

"You think the leaders are planning something against us?" Lara asked.

"We'll find out…" John concluded.

They all walked together the rest of the way, all wondering what lay in store for them. As they made their way through the auditorium, they realized that only the first years were seated on the stage. Sarah glanced at Lynn with a raised eyebrow. They all took their seats. As soon as everyone was seated their director stood up.

"Hello everyone. Congratulations on finishing rookie camp." He smiled. "The rest is pretty easy, you just have auditions for music placement tomorrow, and then its just learning our halftime show for the game, and a bit of parade marching." He motioned to the line of people standing next to him. "I'd like you to meet these fine people standing next to me, the University football coach, the sports director, and the president of the University."

Everyone stood up and gave a small inspiring speech, some were funny, and others were a bit boring. Sarah leaned over to Lynn. "So… where are the others?" Lynn only shrugged back.

Just as Sarah asked that, they heard 5 sharp whistles, followed by "Ah, One, Two, Three, UP!!!" shouted by what seemed like a good 200 people. The rookies looked around wildly to find out where it was coming from. Suddenly drums started thundering through the walls, and 200 people came pouring out of the doors, shouting the cadences and cheers of the band. "Here we go!!!!!!"

Sarah was so excited she was about to cry. All 200 of them were marching right in front of the rookies on the stage. She could feel the drums pounding in her heart. She could hardly contain herself…

Finally the band all screamed "Face and Halt!!" There was a short silence, and the rookie class stood up cheering. When everything died down, the director stood up again.

"Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is what you all are about to become part of!" He said excitedly. "Ok, now that you are all here, lets begin rehearsal."

After the much chattering of excitement from the first years, they all settled down, and began rehearsal again. This time, it was a full 300 people. It sounded better than ever, and Sarah, having come from a high school band of only 30 people, it was amazing!

After rehearsal, the vets started buzzing around the stage. "Alright! First years outside!" They screamed.

Sarah looked around in confusion. Following John Lynn and Lara out the door, Jenn and Beth were ushering them out. They wandered outside of the auditorium, and lined up along the street. Melissa placed them in an order similar to the block band of practice.

"What's going on?" Sarah asked.

"You'll find out." Jenn chuckled.

John was literally bouncing up and down. "You think we get to do the cadences?" He asked Sarah excitedly.

Sarah smiled. "I hope so!"

They heard the same 5 sharp whistles that they did back in the auditorium. The drums sounded again, and everyone started marching forward.

"Yes we are!" John exclaimed.

Sarah laughed at his excitement. "We're such band geeks."

Suddenly the whole band yelled "Ah-One-two-Three-up!!!"

They marched down the street, waking up the entire campus with the loud banging of their drums; It was like one big party. Sarah was desperately trying to keep up.

"Just follow what we do." Jenn said smiling. "You'll catch on quick."

"This is how we do things in this band, we throw you in and see how you do it." Beth chuckled. "You learn faster that way."

They continued marching through the streets, past the frat houses. The young men and women came out of their houses and started cheering.

"This is awesome!" John commented, as he was trying to follow what Jenn and Beth were doing.

They marched all the way back to the courtyard of the dorms which they were staying in.

Finally the band all yelled. "Face and Halt!"

"That was amazing!" Sarah said happily.

The trumpets started playing their little fanfares, and the whole band started dancing around. Next the trombones played their songs with the tubas, and then the whole band played selections from last year's repertoire. The first years didn't know the songs, so they just danced around with each other, enjoying the moment.

"This has to be the coolest band I have ever seen." Lara chuckled.

"Told ya so." Sarah replied.

After about an hour of playing around, the band finally stopped playing. "Good job guys!" The drum major yelled.

The crowd dispersed, and headed back to the dorms. Sarah, John and Lynn were all talking excitedly about their little adventure.

"Great job guys." Jenn said happily. "You'll get to do it again tomorrow during practice, so don't worry, you'll all get good at it."

"Thanks Jenn." Sarah replied. She was suddenly overcome with sleepiness and yawned. "Well, I'm gonna head to bed."

She said goodbye to the others, and went straight back to her dorm room. She quickly changed into her pajamas, and fell straight into bed. That was about the coolest thing she had ever experienced, and it was only about to get better.


End file.
